If hotcakes were selling like iPads, IHOP would be the hottest investment on the block. But hold the maple syrup -- despite the higher price tag on most Macs, Apple’s making more money off iPads these days. Its Q3 2011 iPad earnings were $6.05 billion, up 179 percent since the previous year. Meanwhile, Mac sales raked in $5.1 billion…representing gains of only 16 percent.

What’s driving the iPad’s explosive growth? The “cool factor” is certainly part of it, but the iPad’s utility is the foundation of its success. It’s terrific as a second computing device (the first being a Mac or PC), and for many of us, it’s taking the spotlight as our primary platform for work, email, browsing, and beyond. Thanks to the cutting-edge offerings in the App Store (15 billion downloads served!), it’s even more practical than ever before to handle all your productivity needs with an iPad. We’re talking photographing checks to deposit them, piping video calls to your TV, and loads more. But how?

If there's one confession you have to make to yourself, it's this: one of the primary reasons you bought your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad was to play extreme sports games on it. With that in mind comes DMBX - Mountain Biking, the latest in a series of extreme sports games from Randerline.

An early knock against the iPad (and the iPhone) was that people want physical keys, that touch screen typing is difficult and unnatural. As we move more and more towards a paperless world, what's a non-touch-screen-typist to do in this tabletly world? With a wealth of handwriting apps in the App Store, where do we start?

DropDAV is a no-brainer for iPad owners looking to get work done. For $5 a month, this service enables you to access your Dropbox account through the WebDAV standard that Apple uses in iWork for iPad applications. That means you can upload those documents right to your Dropbox. But that’s not all -- other applications, like OmniFocus, can also take advantage of this connection method.

With all of the attention that Apple’s forthcoming iCloud initiative has placed on cloud computing, one wonders how some of the pioneers in the field will react. In the case of Pogoplug makers Cloud Engines Inc., the response appears to be a new, low-cost mobile-centric device for the home that allows streaming to anywhere.

If you’re a die-hard fan of the video game Frogger, you’ve probably realized by now that 2011 marks the a milestone for the hopping little frog, who turns 30 this year. Publisher Konami Digital Entertainment is celebrating in grand style with a new universal iOS app that lets you experience the game as never before.

Apple seeds yet another iOS 5 beta to developers on Wednesday night, an over the air update less than half the size of the last one with few obvious changes -- with the exception of killing what appeared to be streaming music tracks through the iTunes Match beta.

As rumors swirl that Netflix is planning to go beyond North America, Hulu beats them to the punch by launching in Japan, although the service is following the Netflix playbook on at least one front, with higher prices. Meanwhile, a new update to the existing iOS app allows HDMI output on the iPad 2 -- as long as you’re down with standard definition, that is.

There is another new GPS app in the App Store today, as Garmin unveiled Garmin StreetPilot onDemand for the iPhone (and 3G enabled iPads). The app delivers Garmin walking or driving navigation to you iPhone, including current maps of the United States and Canada. Now, for the first time though, you can get a Garmin on your iPhone with a monthly subscription instead of having to shell out a big one-time app purchase.

StreetPilot onDemand includes a thirty day subscription to Garmin's Premium Navigation with Traffic. This subscription is pretty key here; without it, you can still access the maps and get direction, but not turn-by-turn directions or many other robust features. Compared to buying a new GPS device or one of the more expensive GPS apps in the App Store, though, the monthly fee is a steal.

No matter how violently devoted you are to Apple, sooner or later, someone will slip into your circle of friends that just doesn't get it. They might like the look of your iPhone 4, or the slim awesomeness of your iPad 2, but there's just no tearing that Android-powered Xperia Play or Eee Pad Transformer out of their misguided hands. Despite your insurmountable difference of opinion, there's no reason why you still can't interact on a digital level. We've put together a list of 10 apps that will treat your hardware -- no matter whether it's rocking iOS or Android -- as equals, letting you play, chat, and work together.